Blue Smoke and Murder
Chapter One
Northern Arizona
August
Midnight
Something was wrong.
Heart beating wildly, Modesty Breck sat up in bed.
Listening over the pounding of her pulse, she tried to
understand what had jerked her out of her sleep.
The wind blew hard, swirling around the old ranch house.
She ignored the sound of rushing air. In the high,
desolate reaches of Arizona's northern strip, the wind
always blew.
The noise came again.
The front window groaned as someone pushed it up in the
old wooden frame. Like her, groaning at every movement
of her dry, brittle body. With fingers gnarled by
arthritis, she found her glasses on the bedside table
and shoved them into place, grateful that her hearing
was still plenty good.
She fumbled under her narrow bed for the .22-caliber
snake gun that was older than she was. Its lever action
jammed more often than it fired, but the prowler
wouldn't know that.
When she struggled to her feet, the cold rose through
the old wooden floor into her thick wool socks. Over the
protests of stiff muscles and joints, she walked quietl ... read full excerpt from: Blue Smoke and Murder ebook
